Ivy Zheng
Ms. Knight
American History C Block
14 March 2017
PSR 3
The First Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt was presented on Saturday, March 4, 1933 in Washington DC. The address is considered as a primary source. The intended audience was to the citizens of the United States after Franklin D. Roosevelt became America's 32nd president. It was an address to ensure that Americans understood what Roosevelt would do during his presidency. He wanted to convince America and its citizens to not be afraid of the economic crisis that was happening and to fight the battle with him. Roosevelt also convinced another major group of people, pathos, by including God and the religious spirit in his speech. By using "we" in his speech, Roosevelt
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president and served from March 4, 1933 to April 12, 1945 (longest presidency). Franklin served in two of America's worst times, the Great Depression and World War II. During the Great Depression, Hebert Hoover (31st president), took the blame because he was in office from 1929 to 1933. Americans blamed him for how badly he and the government handled the outbreak of the Depression and they should have been more active in correcting the economic downturn. Hoover did not care about the middle or lower classes and did not want to get involved. He said it would fix itself while Roosevelt disagreed. Roosevelt believed that only the government could help America get out of this economic down town and under his administration, the government’s power and authority expanded. He promised "a new deal for the American people". He talked about the problems going on, "taxes risen, ability to pay has fallen, savings of many years in thousands of families are gone" and ties the audience in. He promised the protection of small homes and farms and strict supervision of banking. The economy was so bad that people did not have jobs and "our" primary task is to find more jobs for the jobless. So, The New Deal was created (1933-1938) and its main focus was on economic recovery and financial reform. One of Roosevelt’s most famous line, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself…”, Roosevelt describes how Americans should focus on fixing the economic crisis rather than letting fear take action. They should only be afraid of letting their fears stop them from fixing the economic crisis. Roosevelt also includes many military and war related words, “shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis-broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe”. He wants to wage a war against the Great Depression and made plans to